Several elements of oligoribonucleotide structure are important for efficient hydrolysis. We have found that the following factors influence oligoribonucleotide hydrolysis: (i) single-stranded structure of RNA flanking the scissile phosphodiester bond, (ii) the substituent on atom C-5 of the uridine adjacent to the cleaved internucleotide bond, (iii) the position of the scissile UA phosphodiester bond within a hairpin loop, (iv) the concentration of formamide, urea, ethanol and sodium chloride.
Chemical instability of some of the phosphodiester bonds, often observed in large RNAs, visualizes the autocatalytic properties of this class of nucleic acids. Unexpectedly, selective hydrolysis occurs also in short oligoribonucleotides (as short as a tetramer or hexamer). Herein, we describe additional experiments which support the conclusion that the hydrolysis is not due to ribonuclease contamination but is of autocatalytic origin and is related to the sequence and structure of single-stranded oligomers. Moreover, we show that the presence in the reaction mixture of polyamines, such as spermidine, is essential for hydrolysis of oligoribonucleotides.
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